


Closing the Distance

by Anonymous



Category: K (Anime)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Awkward Flirting, F/M, Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, Innuendo, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:34:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22221889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Kings only associate with other kings, but the Dresden Slate is gone. Things have changed for Munakata.
Relationships: Awashima Seri/Munakata Reishi
Kudos: 4
Collections: Anonymous





	Closing the Distance

**Author's Note:**

> I've been watching K a lot lately. I wanted to write something Awashima/Munakata. I had only a handful of lines when I started, and I'm not really sure how that became this, but it amused me so much I thought I'd try sharing it.

* * *

“Nothing changes, does it?”

Awashima looked over at Fushimi, whose expression as he watched the Red King Anna Kushina leave their compound was indecipherable.

“Kings only bother with other kings.”

Awashima said nothing, her eyes watching the young king leave. Though the coffee table alliance was no longer needed to fight Jungle, the captain had still reached out to Kushina, asking her to meet him, and she had agreed to come and speak to him in a meeting that no one else attended. Even with tensions rising again between blue and red clans, Awashima and Kusanagi had not been needed or wanted at that meeting.

Since the Dresden Slate had been destroyed and no new kings would rise, perhaps Munakata felt it necessary to forge bonds with the two other kings that were left, or maybe he just wanted someone to take tea with. The captain kept most of his thoughts private, and even Awashima as his right hand knew very little of them. She wanted to understand them, of course, but sometimes she thought he would always be mystery to her.

“Well, naturally, one should obey the hierarchy of things, as that is the way order is maintained,” Munakata said, startling Fushimi. He gave a low chuckle. “Fufu, I must say that change is one I find rather… useful. I’ve been considering a certain Jungle operative train me in the ways of the ninja. What do you think, Fushimi?”

Whatever Fushimi grumbled under his breath could not have been the least bit complementary. Awashima prepared to lecture him, but Munakata waved it away with his hand.

“Unfortunately, it will have to wait for now as we are still busy dealing with the effects of the liberated Dresden Slate. To that end, Lieutenant—”

“Yes, of course. We have much work to do.”

* * *

Yet, when they had returned to his office, Munakata went to his tatami mat and began preparing tea. Awashima had thought he had already taken it with the Kushina girl, but he poured her a cup, passing it to her.

“Do you believe that kings can only associate with kings?”

Awashima did not want to admit it. She had always known he kept himself at a distance from her—from all of them—and she had said as much before, when Fushimi voiced his opinion before their battle with the red clan on the school island.

“I see.”

“Captain, I—That is—it is not that I want it to be that way. I would prefer you relied on me more, but I know that you find things in other kings that I do not have. My power comes from you, and while I am your right hand and a leader in that sense, it is not the same. Your kinship with the other kings is one thing I cannot share.”

“Perhaps not,” he agreed, lifting up his cup and sipping from it before placing it down again. “However…”

“Sir?”

“The Dresden Slate is no more. There are no longer any kings in that sense. I fear I should actually be redesignated as a Beta class Strain—”

“Never. You are our captain. Even if the Slate that gave you your power as king is gone, you are still here and still our leader.”

He smiled. “Thank you, Miss Awashima. Once again you prove your nickname is inaccurate.”

She frowned. She shouldn’t be surprised that Munakata knew about Kusanagi calling her the ‘Heartless Woman,’ but she found she was. She knew it had spread in HOMRA, since the third in command used it as well, but for the captain to know…

She lowered her head, concentrating on her tea.

“You needn’t do that. I am not disappointed. I suppose, in some sense, I should be, since I do not know that you would have been able to do what you said you would when I was facing the Damocles down.”

She balled her hands into fists on her lap. No, she supposed she might have continued to hesitate. She’d hoped for a miracle, and it came in the form of the Silver King destroying the Slate before Munakata’s sword could fall. He lived. Her captain was still here. She could still serve him. She could still be furious he almost got himself killed there.

“Your emotions interfered with your ability to do your duty.”

“Respectfully, Captain, I may hit you again if you continue this conversation.”

“I suppose that is a risk I must take, for I find I am very interested in its outcome,” he said, and she looked over to see him smiling at her. “You see, I find myself curious, very nearly to the point of distraction, about the exact nature of the emotions that prompted your hesitation. Was it mere loyalty? Mere… compassion? The cold indifference you have to others suggests that your feelings towards me are different from those you feel for anyone else, but is it simply that of a loyal lieutenant to her superior officer? A vassal to a king? Or… that of a sibling-like nature, where I am a brother of some sort to you? If I am like family, then it is understandable as well, perhaps more so than the mere loyalty of our hierarchical system, and yet...”

“Yet?”

“My own words remind me this is not the place for such a discussion. There is order to be maintained. Ranks and regulations to consider.”

She blinked. Had the captain been trying to get her to confess that she… liked him? That her feelings for him were romantic? Was this one of his jokes? Was he only teasing her? He did not seem to be, but then Munakata could be very difficult to read.

She swallowed, taking a sip of tea to help her dry throat. “And if there were not rules and regulations and ranks?”

“Hmm.”

“You must have been thinking it,” she said, “that things are different now. You said yourself that you are no longer a king. Could you also have been thinking about what it would be like not to be a captain?”

“Very much so,” he said, pushing up his glasses. “In case you were curious, I had some discuss on that point with the young Miss Kushina. I was curious of her plans now, if she intends to live a more normal life. It seems the Silver King has chosen to become an educator. That is not a role that I think suits me, though I found myself questioning a great deal when faced with my likely demise.”

“And?”

“Fufu, are you thinking I shall tell you all my secrets now?”

She was not foolish enough to expect that. “I hope you will at least tell me more of them. You do not have to feel so far apart from us now.”

“Indeed. If any lesson is to be learned from these recent events, I believe it is that the course the kings walked in the past was in error. The divisions may have seemed at first to be necessary, but so much destruction and waste came from the lines we kings drew, that we felt necessary because of our pride. I know I kept hoping that Suoh would bend, just a little, to save his life and his clan, and yet when faced with a similar situation…”

“You were willing to step down. You couldn’t close your sanctum.”

“Yes, but I still allowed it to come to that. I could have chosen that before it was too late. I did not. That, I fear, is the problem of nearly every king that ever came before those of us still alive now.” He reached for his tea again. “We fight until the end, whether or not we should. Is it simply because too many know of no other course? Is it the power itself that corrupts us? Or human frailty? Such interesting questions. I have not had enough time to contemplate them. Perhaps I should retire that I may be able to do so.”

She studied him, waiting for him to admit that was a joke.

“Retirement would be even lonelier than being a king, I suspect, which is why so few of us were willing to choose it as an option.”

She shook her head. “It’s only lonely if you allow it to be.”

“Ah. Your advice is to find someone to spend my retirement with?”

“Yes.”

“Now I am doubly curious. Did you have someone in mind for such a role?”

His look made her feel exposed, more so than any time she’d experienced some kind of wardrobe malfunction in or out of uniform. She almost reached up to touch her buttons, as if it would make any difference with her coat.

“Are you asking me to act as your matchmaker, sir?”

He shook his head. “No. That is not what I want. No, Lieutenant, I fear I may have to force you to give me the answer I almost asked for before, the whole and complete truth.”

She swallowed. “I do not want to give you an honest answer to that.”

“No?” He looked down at his cup. “Pity. There goes my other reason for training as a ninja.”

“What?”

His lips curved into a slight smile. “Well, you see… were I to be breaking the rules to have a relationship with someone in my chain of command—hardly like me, I suppose I must admit—then I must first acquire the skills of a ninja so that no one will learn of this clandestine relationship and force me to end it to remain in my current position.”

“Captain...”

He leaned closer to her, his mouth next to her ear, his breath making her shiver. “So tell me, Miss Awashima—Seri—the feelings that prompted you to hesitate in fulfilling your duty, the duty you chose that I tried to keep from you, in ending my life… Those feelings, what were they?”

“You already know.” Her voice wavered slightly, but she was certain of that. He was a calculating man. He wouldn’t ask if he didn’t already know. He was the blue king, and he saw the right of things, how they should be.

“Do I?”

“If you continue to tease me, I will hit you again.”

“Fufu. Denying me my fun.”

“There’s other teasing I’d prefer from you,” she said, meeting his eyes to see them widen in shock. Was he expecting her to be a blushing virgin about this? Being demure was almost impossible when her chest defied gravity, physics, and all sense. Some people looked at her and saw nothing besides her boobs. He’d always seen more… almost like he didn’t see them at all, which made his words now difficult to accept as anything but teasing. Munakata knew how to use sexuality as a weapon like all his others, and he was good at it.

Still, his eyes softened when he looked at her. “I believe I should much prefer that kind of teasing as well.”

He reached up behind her head and undid the clasp holding her hair in place. It fell down, making her grimace to think of the uneven creases in it, but he smiled at her. “I’m afraid I could not continue to have this conversation with my lieutenant. However, if you were out of uniform...”

“That’s an acceptable loophole?”

“Indeed.”

“Then perhaps you should be out of uniform as well.”

“I think that can be arranged.”

“Now?”

“Of course not. That’s terribly inappropriate.” He was smiling again, even as she was tempted to hit him. Was she the only one worked up right now? “However, I should very much like the opportunity to test my ninja skills tonight.”

She would need a long workout and cold shower after this just to calm her body down, and she could hate him for it, but if he could do this much with only words… “I think I’d be tempted to hurt you if you didn’t.”

“Can’t have that now, can we?”

“No.”

* * *

“Seri?”

She opened her eyes to see Munakata looking down at her, his expression troubled even in the low light of the night. As a king, he slept less than the rest of them, but now that those days were gone, she’d expected—maybe even hoped—he’d drift off next to her.

“What is it?”

“You wouldn’t have done this if it was only loyalty, would you?”

She was awake again in an instant, furious. “How could you think that? The loyalty of clansmen to their kings is different than most bonds, even in our clan, but if you honestly think I did this because of that, I swear I will hit you again.”

“Hmm. This may prove a rather abusive relationship.”

“Yes, and you seem to have something of a masochistic inclination, but that—are you trying to pick a fight with me now? Is this because of the rules or the regulations or because you’ve been isolating yourself for so long you don’t know how to let anyone close?”

He reached over to tuck some of her hair behind her ear. “The latter, I fear. Truthfully, I do not know that the Prime Minister is in any position to give orders. While he was always a powerless figurehead trapped by the Gold King’s hold on this country, his own actions once he was ‘free’ nearly destroyed this country in abetting the Green King and he is, in fact, a Strain now. So if his ability does not fade soon, he can be arrested for that, if not for outright treason. Were I to face repercussions for what we have done, I fear they would seem no threat at all. And yet...”

“I’d have stayed by your side forever,” she told him, catching his hand and holding it in place against her cheek. “Not just out of duty, though I have always been proud to be your right hand man. Though I have always wanted more. I wanted to be someone you confided in, someone you trusted not just to take care of a job or a mission but someone you trusted with _you._ I wanted to understand your mind. Somewhere in there all the lines blurred, and you were more than just my king or my captain or my friend. If you try and pick a fight with me, you’ll get one—because I am not letting you go.”

“Hmm. Perhaps it is not true that the Blue King is the king of order.”

She found that hard to believe. “Reisi—”

“See? There? My name on your lips. Another reason why I am more fortunate than I deserve or should expect. That I am alive now, that you feel as you do… I feel absurdly blessed by fortune and completely unable to understand why.”

“I don’t think luck is something you can understand with reason. Same with love.”

She saw him frown, and while she suspected that he was just as uncertain of his own feelings as he was hers, she didn’t want to hear it. He’d spent so long apart from everyone and used lust as a weapon, so she wasn’t surprised he had his doubts about love. She wouldn’t claim she felt enough for the both of them, but she didn’t have to.

“Keep testing your theory,” she said, and he smiled slightly as he understood her meaning. “You’ll find the proof if it’s there.”

“No insistence that it is?”

She thought about that. “I think… it will be.”

“Very optimistic of you.”

“You did kiss me after I finished my _anko.”_

“Oh, well, then,” he said. “It truly must be love.”

She laughed and tugged him down on the bed with her. She snuggled up against him, enjoying the feeling of his fingers combing through her hair as she listened to his heartbeat.

“Try and get some sleep.”

“Is that an order, Lieutenant?”

She shook her head. “Only a suggestion, sir. Also, may I say… you make a fine pillow.”

He chuckled. “Fufu. Shouldn’t I be hard and maybe even a bit lumpy when it comes to being a pillow?”

She ran a hand over his chest and down his abs. “Not a lumpy bit to be found, sir. Though there is something hard.”

“Well, then, in that case...”

* * *

Later, long past when she thought she’d be dead asleep, she lay awake still listening to his heartbeat, her own doubts eating away at her like she was tastier than her best _anko._ Were she to wake and find all of this day had been a dream, what did she do then? She was enough of a grown woman that she could keep a relatively straight face in front of someone she’d had a sexual fantasy about, but this went well beyond that.

She could endure it even if she slipped and called him ‘Reisi’ instead of ‘Captain.’ That didn’t worry her, either. Even Fushimi figuring it out wouldn’t be that unbearable.

“You fidget when you can’t sleep.”

“Sorry, sir.”

“Keep talking like that, and I might just need proof this isn’t about kings or captains again,” he said, and she smiled to herself. She supposed she could have found an easier man, but this one was the one who had her loyalty, her sword, and her heart.

“I didn’t mean to wake you, Reisi.”

“Sleeping next to someone is an adjustment. More so than spending time in a shared barracks or sleeping in tents or other makeshift shelters for missions. This, two people, one bed… It is quite different. I keep trying to put the pieces together in the puzzle, and none of them go where they seem to fit. We should have plenty of space, this bed is not too small, and yet it seems almost as if it is. Hearing your breathing, feeling your skin, your hair… I notice so many little things, not necessarily in an unpleasant sense, but definitely in one that takes time to adjust to, same as any new location does before sleep can come.”

She nodded. She felt the same way, though part of her inability to sleep came from a fear that he’d be gone the moment she woke.

“It is clear in some sense we were quite unwilling to be patient, but one must hope we can be in others and give ourselves time to adjust to these changed circumstances.”

“That, or sleep separately for the rest of our lives.”

“No more sex? How disappointing.”

“You know what I meant. Some couples do that. They don’t share a bed, but they do share intimacy.”

“Yes, though I recall someone promising to spend the rest of her life at my side. That does include sleeping, doesn’t it?”

She fought the urge to laugh. He knew exactly what he was doing right now. “Yes. It does.”

“Good.” He pulled her closer to him. “I may not know all of how to do this, and this will not be simple or easy for either of us. Still… I do not want to be alone. That much I am completely certain of, even as so many other things are changing.”

“You’re not alone. I’m right here with you,” she said, because for the first time since she became his right hand, she truly was. He had shared more of his true thoughts with her today than he had in all their past years together.

“You may have to forgive me if I cling too tightly. I don’t yet know the appropriate distance.”

“We’ll figure it out. We always do.”

“And triumph because our cause is just?”

“Yes.”

“Seri?”

“Hmm?”

“Does good sex count as a just cause?”

She laughed, holding onto him as she did. Damn it, but she might never be able to say those words again with a straight face. Judging from his smirk, he already knew that, but somehow she wasn’t mad. She closed her eyes, letting him be her pillow again as she gave up on sleep and chose instead to enjoy the feeling of being next to him.


End file.
